My First Attempt at Land Art – 4th Quarter Challenge
I was planning on posting an update about my appliqued caricatures but then Zed posted her 4th quarter challenge. I have always been inspired by nature and have done a few rock cairns but nothing very exciting. So I was excited by the challenge and my mind was full of ideas. But then when I was walking the dogs, I noticed the ever present Tamarack pine needles that appear on our driveway in the autumn. Perhaps I could use those as a basis for land art. Then, since it was a nice day, I needed to finish up filling the cracks in the driveway. To do this, I needed to blow all the pine needles off the driveway. So I donned the backpack blower and started.
As I was blowing off one driveway, I started pushing the pine needles together and then started shaping it into a tree shape. Once I got as far as the photo above, I turned off the blower and got a small whisk broom.
And I made this tree. I stood on top of the picnic table to get the photo. The tree is about 25 feet tall. I wish I could have gotten up on the roof to take a better shot but I don’t do heights and I would have fallen off and landed in the hospital or something.
It was fun shaping the tree and drawing with the pine needles.
It didn’t take me very long and since I knew I was just going to blow it off the driveway, I didn’t stress about how it looked.
As you can see, there are still pine needles on the ground in between branches and I didn’t worry about getting them all aligned.
So, this is my first attempt at land art. It has now been blown off the driveway and is only in digital form at this point. If it was just me, I would have left it on the driveway for a while and taken photos of it as it disintegrated. But hubby was having none of that! I know this has little to do with fiber unless you count pine needles as fiber. But it was fun and I really enjoyed my first foray into land art. Thanks for the challenge Zed!
20 thoughts on “My First Attempt at Land Art – 4th Quarter Challenge”
Makes clearing up a lot more fun! 🙂
Thanks! It was quite entertaining actually.
That looks really cool, Ruth! 🙂
Thanks for the inspiration Zed!
I love it – shame you couldn’t get on the roof with your camera though!
Only a very creative mind could come up with the tree of pine needles – it really is land art.
Thanks Lyn – I thought it would be great if I had one of those drones to fly above it with a camera but alas, I don’t have one 😉 I was actually planning on drawing a face with pine needles but the project actually sort of made itself. I just went with what the pine needles wanted.
This is thinking out of the box, uh driveway. lol
Thanks Judy – it was fun.
Hello Ruth, your land art is very create and super great…. Love it… Smile… How sad hubby did not appreciate it and made you blow it away…smile…
Thanks Judy. Hubby actually thought it was great but just not on “his driveway”. He’s very protective of his asphalt. 🙂
Fantastic! Very Mary Poppins: with every job that must be done there is an element of fun. 🙂
Thanks Kim – this was fun and it did make the chore much better!
It’s great Ruth, very spontaneous and fun. Husbands don’t always appreciate art. 🙂
Thanks Ann – the tree was very spontaneous and just kind of “grew” on its own. Actually my husband usually appreciates art just not on “his asphalt” 🙂
Great idea Ruth! Very creative. I guess if we’re going to do outside land art, we’d better do it soon. Unless a snow man counts. 🙂
Thanks Marilyn. I was thinking it would be cool to do some kind of felt sculpture on top of snow – plans still stewing 🙂
Love the pine needle, tree, Ruth! Those of us who are city dwellers will have a bit more of a challenge in finding nature to incorporate into our 4th quarter challenge, but it will be fun!
Thanks Cathy. I have lots of nature. And yes, it takes a bit more thought if you’re in a big city.
I love the shape of your pine needle tree and that ginger colour against the dark asphalt This Land Art challenge has me really intrigued. Not sure if I will try incorporating felt into a bit of land art ( like felting some stones and putting them in a stone stack) or if I will make felt depicting a piece of land art ( make a bag or wall hanging with strong round balanced shaped pattern to mimic a stone stack) I have got some days off coming up and plan on having a felting time so I might even give both a go!
Thanks Jane. The pine needles do make a nice contrast. I look forward to seeing what you do with the Land Art challenge. Do post a photo on the forum when you get it completed.